


make this sky a home

by KapitanKirk, lionor



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Comfort, Emotional Support, F/M, Fluff, Found Family, Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-26
Packaged: 2018-11-05 00:48:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,754
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11002482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KapitanKirk/pseuds/KapitanKirk, https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionor/pseuds/lionor
Summary: The sky is cold and dark and everything that Emori hated about the earth. But she can learn to see the things she loves about the earth in the people she loves in the sky.





	make this sky a home

John found her in the corridor between rooms, where it was space-cold and almost pitch black. He hadn’t seen her for hours, and panic had threatened to set in – she could have frozen, or somehow stumbled out of the area they’d tentatively inhabited for the past two weeks. Emori was crouched on huddled on the metal floor, knees pulled tight up to her chest and arms hugging around them for warmth. He nearly tripped on her.

“Come back in, you’ll freeze to death.”

In the gloom, he saw the outline of her head shaking. “No. When it’s dark and cold like this I can pretend it’s winter outside.”

He crouched down beside her. “Nah, that doesn’t make sense, there’s no sky. Come back in, we can peer out one of the hold windows and see the stars.”

“It’s not the right kind of sky.”

He nodded wordlessly and put his arm around her. She was shivering, and trying very hard to hide it. He touched her cheek and it came away wet with tears. “Emori, please come in. I know this is rough but you have to take care of yourself.”

For a moment he thought she had frozen, but then she sank into his arms, trying to hold in a sob. “How the hell can you live in space, John?” she asked, teeth still chattering a bit. “How the hell are we supposed to last up hear without trees or real air or any kind of animal? It’s the worst kind of wasteland, and I thought I’d seen it all.”

He gave her shoulders a squeeze. “It is a wasteland. But believe it or not we managed. Come back in. I’ll tell you about it.”

He knew it was the cold more than his convincing that finally got her back into the group’s little pool of warmth, but any way was better than letting her stay out in the cold. Bellamy turned and gave a smile as he saw them come in. Everyone was scattered about the smallish room: Harper and Monty were talking quietly, trying to mend the old clothes they’d found in foraging missions around the Ring, and Raven was reading a textbook she’d found tucked away in an officer’s room. The soft glow of Monty’s jury-rigged generator gave the space a homey, campfire-like feeling. John smiled, thinking of his and Emori’s many hunting expeditions. He squeezed her hand. “Feels like the cave, doesn’t it?”

She looked at him sideways, and he could sense more than see her humor. “Which one?”

John settled her down in the scraps of cloth that they’d collected to serve as blankets and sat behind her, rubbing warmth back into her arms and resting his chin on her shoulder. Monty’s generator looked like a scrapyard monster, but it provided heat enough to ward off the chill when they slept.

“Close quarters aren’t all that bad.” John mused as he ran his hand up and down the goosebumps forming on Emori’s bare arms. “Reminds me of the time when a gas pipe leaked in our quarters when I was little. We had to move to the tiniest closet on the Ark for a month before they okayed it. Tripping over each other and didn’t have an inch of space to yourself.”

“And that’s supposed to make me feel better?” Emori smiled and leaned back into John’s chest. Even after everything that happened John’s heart still skipped a beat when Emori smiled at him.

“It was the closest we’d ever been as a family. Mom would steal scented candles sometimes and would light them when we were all together. You’d be around strangers all day at school and work and come home and it was like heaven or whatever.” John’s voice trailed off as he realized that everyone had left their own spaces at the edge of the room and huddled around the generator beside them.  He felt Emori relax and saw the hint of her smile at his embarrassment.

“Or whatever,” Raven said wryly. John was ready to retort, but she sighed and went on. “Maybe a surprise, but I agree with you. I’d sneak away from my mom’s apartment and Finn and I would hole up in his room and watch movies. His room was about the size of a broom closet but it felt like home.” She smiled a little and blinked a tear away hurriedly. John felt a returning smile cross his face, and hugged Emori tighter. He could understand Raven’s loss better, now.

“The thing about small rooms is, they’re almost too easy to hotbox,” piped up Monty. “It’s almost impossible to avoid, actually.”

Emori sat up a bit. “What the hell does ‘hotboxing’ even mean? Is this one of your weed things?”

Monty grinned. “Definitely one of those weed things.” His grin fell moments later and John could see the thousand-yard stare of grief in Monty’s eyes. “J-Jasper and I…”

John almost intervened and change the subject after he saw the tears forming at the edge of Monty’s eyes, but Monty persisted. John was reminded by the painful scabbing wounds on Monty’s hands how persistent he could be.

“Jasper and I had this absolutely miniscule old room you had to crawl through a service duct to get to. It was the perfect room to hide in and smoke. We spent hours in there playing ‘on which planet would you rather’ and talking about every single girl on the station.”

Harper elbowed him playfully in the ribs. “You better have said nice things about me.”

“I’ve only ever said nice things about you.”

Harper dodged Monty’s attempted kiss and smacked him lightly on the cheek. “We will talk about this later,” she promised.

Monty stuck his tongue out at her. “Anyway, we’d hotbox this room as often as we could. Just him and me and about two feet of space between us. Happiest I ever was on the Ark.”

Harper took Monty’s arm and squeezed it. “Cute.”

Monty smiled and succeeded this time in planting a kiss on her cheek. “What was your best time on the Ark?”

Harper’s smile turned wistful. “I don’t know. I don’t think much about those days, anymore. In a lot of ways, I think I was better on the ground.” She paused again, staring into the dimness beyond the generator. “This is good though. This is really good.”

They listened to the hum of the Ring in silence, each lost in their own thoughts for a few minutes. The group had gathered closer and closer to the heater, unconsciously drawn to the heat and the increasingly familiar presence of the seven bodies huddled around it.

Raven broke the silence and nudged Echo’s knee, “How about you, Echo? Your people have any tiny igloos to call home?”

Echo rolled her eyes, “We didn’t live in Igloos, Raven. And I’m not about to join in Skaikru feelings hour.”

“Aren’t we all technically Skaikru now?” John teased. Emori pinched the back of John’s knee like she knew he hated and stretched her foot out to push Echo’s.

“Dula'm op, Echo,” she urged.

Echo sighed and muttered, “Shof op,” but relented. “Before I was old enough to serve under the queen, my village was in the northern fringes of Azgeda territory. It was cold all the time, but winter was deadly. There was a concrete building that survived Praimfaya and the whole village would spend the long winter nights in that little concrete building huddled for warmth. The elders would tell stories about battles they’d won and many warriors received their scars there when they’d come back from the fighting. So I guess that’s home.” She shrugged. “Enough feelings for you?”

“That sounds like the old Norseman halls,” said Bellamy, clearing his throat. “You know, Vikings. That’s a big part of their mythology, gathering together and telling stories.”

Raven laughed. “So you’re saying the Azgeda are basically Viking berserkers? Sounds about right.”

Echo glowered, but it seemed more of a joke than true anger. “Berserkers?”

“We’ll talk about it later, Echo,” Bellamy laughed.

The group turned expectantly to Bellamy. He readjusted for a few seconds and John was sure he was going to growl something about being tired or needing to check up on something, but he smiled and leaned in closer to the heater.

“When I got back home from school and before Mom got back from work, Octavia and I and would lay on my bed and read as long as we could. Octavia spent most of her life in that tiny hole in the floor, but the second she got out she’d be right by my side. I taught her how to read laying on those terrible beds.”

There was a general murmur of assent. “Those beds were the worst. I’ve had a better time sleeping on the ground with rocks digging into my back,” muttered John.

Bellamy nodded. “Sometimes O almost had it better. When I was still small enough to fit, we’d pretend the floor space was a fort and stuff it with all the pillows and blankets Mom owned.” He smiled to himself, remembering. “It was like burrowing into clouds.”

Emori laid back against John. “That really doesn’t sound so bad. You people leave more blankets up here?”

Bellamy smiled. “We should all keep our eyes peeled. But now I’m decreeing it nighttime and therefore bedtime.”

The group dispersed to sleep. John and Emori stayed by the generator another moment, staring into the low glow. Emori sighed. “It’s always nighttime up here. Always dark. How did that work for you?”

John thought a moment. “We had timekeeping systems, and a pretty careful lighting scheme so our bodies could adjust. Bellamy found a watch in one of the control rooms, so he can keep track until we have enough power to set up the lights.”

“I suppose you people had it figured out, in a way.”

“Us. We have it figured out. We’re all these people now.” He moved to lie down, pulling her and the blankets with him. He moved to adjust the quilt and pulled it over their heads. “Think of this as a tent. And outside us is the camp. And outside that is the forest and outside that is the sky. You’re home, after all.”

Emori turned to face John. “If you can survive it, I sure as hell can.” She grinned, and swiftly kissed him. “And if anyone can make the sky a home for me, you sure as hell can.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> Translator's notes: they are bad but they mean something like "Do it!" and "Shut up!"  
> Alternate summary: "your home is with me, he says, let's go to space, he says"  
> Alternate title: Feelings Hour with the Squad  
> Thanks for reading, and know that we are weeping


End file.
